A NEWPORT metal band has had their chance to conquer the world delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic - but they have put the free time to good use with new music on the way.

Venom Prison are closing out their fifth year as a band, and had hoped 2020 would be their year with tours lined up for Australia and South East Asia, as well as hugely anticipated UK runs.

But in March, the coronavirus pandemic hit and therefore all their plans were put on hold - apart from the release of their new record Primeval on Friday, October 9.

Primeval contains songs that are well known to the most dedicated Venom Prison fans as it comprises re-recordings of their first two EPs.

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Vocalist Larissa Stupar, who is originally from Germany but relocated to the UK in 2015, said: “It was lucky we had recorded it in December. We wanted to give the records the treatment they deserved. Defy The Tyrant was recorded in a living room and it sounds like it.

“Also a lot of people don’t even know we did these records, so it was nice to revisit them and re-record.”

There are also two new songs on the album, including latest single Slayer of Holofernes. Ms Stupar said of the track: “It’s a biblical story. Growing up in Germany, my family were very religious so I studied the Bible for a couple of years. I’m actually an atheist but the story of Judith, who is this pretty girl and slayed Holofernes before parading his head around the town, was really cool and I wanted more people to hear it.

“It was also an experiment as I added some clean vocals in, which the guys supported and I’m thankful for that.”

After the coronavirus pandemic hit and the band’s tours were cancelled, they set about working on new music. “We used the ‘free time’ to work on new tracks and almost have a new album ready. There’s just a few more bits to do and we hope to release it next year - and hopefully tour it,” said Ms Stupar.

Venom Prison are planning their 2021 and have rescheduled their UK tour - where they will be supported by Creeping Death and Leeched - for January and February, but have made fans aware this could change.

“We wanted to make sure that when we announced the rescheduled dates, that it may still not happen as it all depends on the situation at the time. We want our tour to be a safe space for us, our fans and the crews so it was important for us to make it known from the start that the tour may not happen in January. Whatever the situation, the tour will happen but we’ll just move the dates.

“We were meant to play with Parkway Drive this year as well as our Australian and South East Asian tours and we want to reschedule those as soon as we can as we haven’t been there and they love our style of music. We also want to go back to America.”